Predictions For Online Privacy After Facebook’s Senate Investigation

It’s been a few weeks since Mark Zuckerberg was brought before the United States Senate for an investigation on how his company handles its users’ confidential information. Aside from Mr. Zuckerberg being ripped into by angry Senators, it seems that not much else has happened as a result of this case. In this post we’ll speculate on how internet privacy rules may or may not change as a result of this hearing.

Knee-Jerk Reassurance By Social Media Platforms

We saw this coming from a mile away, and in the days since the Senate investigation, it has played out as expected. Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, and other social media platforms have put up notices and announcements to reassure you that they really do care about your security and privacy. Facebook’s “Privacy Commitments” and Security Check-Ups have been showing up more on users’ timelines, Twitter put a notice at the top of its page, and other websites are making it very obvious that they take your privacy seriously. Anyone can see that this is simply a knee-jerk PR move since the public now suddenly cares about their online privacy. While ads are cheap and easy to put up, we haven’t seen any sweeping changes to how these platforms handle your information, and we highly doubt that anything big will happen before the public moves on to the next issue of the week.

Brief Attention From Lawmakers Before Moving On

Taking a cue from the Senate’s condemnation of Facebook’s practices, political figures at all levels are rushing to capitalize on the latest hot-button issue. Empty platitudes and promises can be found on the Twitter feeds of ex-presidential candidates, governors, and all the way down to local city council members. Unfortunately, like the social media platforms at the heart of the issue, it’s doubtful that these figures will do anything of importance or significance to back up their claims. No new laws have been passed or introduced; the only action of note is that the death throes of Net Neutrality support are gaining a slight amount of steam, though it’s unlikely to make a comeback.

How Can I Take Action on This Issue?

With the issue quickly fading from public attention, how can you keep the spotlight on and rally support for online privacy? The first and easiest step is to write to your government representatives at every level. Start local with your city council, mayor, and state Representatives and Senators, then move on to your governor, federal Representatives and Senators, and yes, even sign a Change.org petition. These things actually work if enough people participate, so don’t count on someone else taking action – do it yourself!

The next step is a bit harder, but if you want to hit the culprits behind this investigation, delete your social media accounts. The #deletefacebook movement gained huge support, with millions of accounts going dark in the span of a week. One less account means that much less revenue from ads and selling your personal information.

To conclude, it’s easy to see that nothing big has happened as a result of Facebook’s investigation, and while the issue is losing attention from the public at large, there are still things you can do to fight back.